Environment Variables

The Hulo AuthorsJuly 20, 2025Less than 1 minuteguideenvironmentconfiguration

While most installation methods automatically configure the bin/ directory to your system PATH, manual downloads require manual configuration. Hulo also provides several key-value environment variables for configuring the compiler and third-party libraries.

HULO_PATH

The HULO_PATH environment variable specifies the location of your Hulo installation directory, primarily used to locate the core/ standard library directory.

Default Behavior: If not set, the compiler automatically searches for the core/ directory in the parent directory of the executable's bin/ folder.

Use Cases: When you need to customize the Hulo installation location or use non-standard installation paths.

HULO_MODULES

The HULO_MODULES environment variable specifies the location of locally installed third-party libraries.

Features: Hulo uses a global library cache mechanism, unlike Node.js's node_modules which maintains local caches in each project.

Benefits: Global caching saves disk space and avoids duplicate installations of the same libraries.